Chuck Currie, the king of UCC bloggers, has been all over the story of the arson attack on St. John’s Reformed UCC in Staunton, Virginia. He now passes on this article from the News-Virginian:
Federal agents on Monday confirmed the weekend blaze at St. John’s Reformed United Church of Christ in Middlebrook was arson and a hate crime against the church.
“We’re looking at it as a civil rights violation,” Lawrence Barry, spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said Monday.
The arson falls in line with federal hate-crime statutes banning attacks on property “with a religious character.”
Meanwhile, investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have “definitely” ruled the Saturday morning fire as arson, said Bart McEntire, resident agent in charge of the ATF in southwest Virginia.
Scrawled on the outer brick walls of the Middlebrook church were “SINNER,” “LESB HELL” and “GAYS LOVER.” Investigators, along with St. John’s Pastor Dorcas Lohr, are convinced the graffiti refers to last week’s decision by the national United Church of Christ to endorse gay marriage. The decision is not binding on individual churches.
McEntire, however, stopped short of ruling the arson as a hate crime.
“We’re going to let the facts take us to where they do,” he said. “We’re not jumping to conclusions, but we can’t rule it out. It’s the theory to follow right now.”
Both the FBI and ATF dispatched investigators to Middlebrook on Saturday to join with Virginia State Police and the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office.
Firefighters extinguished a blaze started early Saturday with hymnals stacked in the sanctuary. Though fire destroyed only a small section of the sanctuary, the resulting smoke damage forced the congregation to hold its Sunday morning service and 225th anniversary celebration on the church lawn.
More below the fold.
It didn’t quite sink in when a colleague told me today, but the pastor of St. John’s was formerly on the Penn Central Conference staff. I wouldn’t say that I know her well, but I do know her. I also know that she certainly doesn’t deserve this kind of crap.
Fred Clarkson has noticed the eerie silence of the Religious Right concerning the UCC’s recent affirmation of Same Sex Marriage. I’ll just echo that insight with the even more damning silence about this attack:
- Agape Press: nothing.
- Albert Mohler: nothing.
- Baptist Press: nothing.
- Gary Bauer: nothing.
- CBN.com: nothing.
- The Christian Post: nothing.
- Family Research Council: nothing.
- Focus on the Family: nothing.
- Jerry Falwell Ministries: nothing.
- Persecution.org: nothing.
- Traditional Values Coalition: nothing.
Meanwhile, a google search turns up 127 articles on the subject.
Seems like that’s a whole lot of silence, from groups that have jumped on far, far less.
Wonder why they don’t want to talk about it?
